What we can't work out is why governments don't make it easier for those like us actively bringing down our carbon emissions, why there aren't incentives, even rewards for cycling commuters and travellers. In an era of unfolding climate change you'd expect that governments would be falling over backwards to support people who are actively disengaging in the economies that are most harmful.

Really, you can't understand why governments don't reward people who are "actively disengaging in the economies that are most harmful?" The global economy is entirely based on what we can rip out of the earth. The whole goddamn thing's harmful! If you can't eat it, burn it, smelt it, build shit with it, or blow shit up with it, it's pretty much worthless.

If nobody's getting hurt, nobody's getting paid.

Moreover, where you lie in this chain of eating, burning, smelting, building, and killing entirely defines your value as a human being. So expecting the government to provide you with incentives so that you can remove yourself from this chain and use fewer resources is like expecting McDonald's to give you money for not shopping in their restaurants.

Where are the public transport visionaries in government who want to create better access for car-free or car-reduced households? More bikes on our roads means less health-related costs (particularly obesity and heart disease), less wear and tear on expensive roads and infrastructure, fewer PCBs, heavy metals, dioxins and toxic detergents in our water systems, less roadkill, fewer roadside memorials, less carbon pollution, more space for those who still require the use of a car and, quite simply, happier people. It is well known that active travel, and of course exercise more generally, oxygenates the blood and releases endorphins in the body that help combat anxiety and depression.

See above.

Yet, NSW has a transport ministry that seems ideologically opposed to such wellness and mobility. It is pulling out cycle paths and wanting to introduce punitive laws for cyclists such as the mandatory carrying of ID. This is very alarming to a family of bicyclists and public transport users from Victoria. While there is much to improve in Victoria when it comes to bicycle access, it seems positively enlightened compared to its neighbouring state. From our perspective the NSW government appears backwards and contradictory in its efforts to stifle cycling accessibility when everywhere else in the world bike culture is blossoming. Why is this? One can only think it has to do with lobbyists.

Lobbyists! See? Now you're getting it! Don't feel so bad though. Apart from the usual suspects in Europe, "bike culture" isn't blossoming at all. In fact it may be wilting. New York City's best days are behind it as far as developing infrastructure goes. San Francisco's being overridden by luxury buses full of tech bros and sisses. And Portland, once the most bike-friendly city in America, is experiencing "biking stagnation."

Don't feel bad, Portland. You're under a lot of stress. We can try again tomorrow.

Of course, just because a family rides bikes and is almost pathologically naive doesn't mean they deserve this sort of treatment:

From our experience, riding around the state and occasionally catching trains over the past two months has been a nightmare. We've been refused entry onto trains when it has been pouring with rain or we've been freaked out by dangerous driving and just want to rest from it. We have had our heavy bikes fall on us trying to walk them down multiple flights of stairs to get to a platform, we've been abused and had things thrown at us when the shoulder of the road we've been riding on has disappeared and we've risked venturing into a lane. To us about 60 per cent of drivers don't realise that a bicycle has an equal right to use the entire lane. It is just common courtesy and common sense that cyclists don't.

Though as far as this guy's concerned it just means he's doing his job:

In fact he's so flattered by that last paragraph he's nearly blushing.

Also, let's not forget that Australia is the country that has perfected victim blaming in the same way that Japan once perfected making reliable automobiles. Consider this infuriating video, forwarded by a reader:

(If anything there should be laws against wearing helmets on scooters.)

It's not that we're any better at dealing with murderous drivers, it's just that we haven't yet attained that same degree of moral absolutism with regard to helmets that Australia has.

Walker admits to having been puzzled by the findings. “The helmet could make zero difference to the outcome, but people wearing one seemed to take more risks in what was essentially a gambling task,” he said. “Replicated in real-life settings, this could mean that people using protective equipment might take risks against which that protective equipment cannot reasonably be expected to help.”

Yes, whether it's a monarch's crown or a Fred's lump of polystyrene, people tend to make rash decisions when they're wearing hard things on their heads. This is why you should always remove your helmet as soon as you get off your bike, let you get taken in a game of three-card Monte.

The certain conditions, in this case, are when a person is riding a bicycle in a no-passing zone on a roadway that has no shoulder, or a shoulder of less than three feet. In this case, the person on the bike would have to stop the bike, move off of the roadway, and allow faster vehicles to pass. Given that “faster vehicles” are going to be every single vehicle with four wheels and an engine versus two wheels and a set of pedals, this is going to result in a whole lot of pulling over and stopping for the people trying to ride bikes.

This may be even more stupid than the mandatory dismount bill:Austrian design firm Juust has recently introduced the Travelbox, a portable pop-up hotel room designed for active travellers or urban dwellers who frequently switch locations. Aiming to cut down on the costs and waste associated with moving regularly, the Travelbox comes with the essential furniture for a single individual’s living needs, as well as a bike to enable transportation upon arrival.

As a city person myself I deeply resent the way that "urban dweller" has become designerspeak for "complete and utter douchebag."

The 132 pound case folds out into a bookshelf/ room divider, a table and chair which can double as a desk, a bed with a mattress and two pillows, and the bike. You can store your things, get a good night’s rest, check your email in the morning and then head out into the city on two wheels.

Eew. If you could walk a condo like a dog this is what it would look like if you failed to pick up after it.

The Travelbox is a pretty interesting solution to a problem not common to many people, but pressing for those whose lifestyle creates it. Frequently moving, especially internationally, means frequently buying new furniture, or scrambling to find an available furnished apartment. Either option is costly and time consuming. To cut down on costs, many travellers end up simply living without furniture for longer than is comfortable or desirable.

What kind of lifestyle is that? The only one I can think of his being homeless, which would make this the world's most fashionable refrigerator box:

The single biggest performance improvement you can make on your bike isn’t a lighter set of wheels or electronic shifting. In fact, it isn’t an upgrade at all—and it won’t cost you more than some time and, maybe, what you’d spend on a new roll of bar tape. It’s tire pressure. And if you don’t pay attention to it, yours is probably wrong.

But...but...what about the beefy bottom brackets and the specially-shaped stays and the crabon layup and the lateral stiffness and the vertical compliance?

You mean to tell me adjusting the cushion of air I'm riding on makes more of a difference than all of those things put together?

Unbelievable.

Still, Bicycling being Bicycling, they now want you to be a complete pressure weenie and do ridiculous stuff like this:

Step 1: Weigh yourself holding your bike and wearing your kit (including shoes), Step 2: Put the scale under one wheel and a block of the same height under the other. Have a friend hold you up, then read the scale. Step 3: Swap to the other wheel.The total amount should match your static weight from step 1, and the weight from steps 2 and 3 give you the percent of total weight on each wheel. The bad news: I know of no scientifically backed formula for adjusting tire pressure based on weight distribution. This is an instructive test because it tells you what your weight balance is, but it won’t give you a firm equation to adjust tire pressure.
If you ever find yourself tempted to do this, just save yourself some time by having the friend in Step 2 slap you across the face instead.

Then check your tires (a quick squeeze is fine, no super-accurate gauges necessary), adjust as needed, and go for a ride.

RE: Bikecycling Magazine's tire pressure discovery. It seems to me that they are just now realizing what MTBers have known for years. I.e., tire pressure has a fairly dramatic effect on performance and how the bike feels. Tire pressure and the ability to run lower pressures is almost the whole justification behind going tubeless.

So, what pressure are you running? Maybe Bicycling has a new Editor, or is under new management. Maybe you have finally ridiculed them enough that they feel the need to be honest and not just bring in advertising money trying to sell the latest and greatest thing-you-don't-need-on-your-bike.

The crowd of Bib Shorts Guys around The Monolith is terrifying - thanks Snob.

There's a word for what you and that family are espousing here, "post-productivism" aka the idea we need to move beyond measuring extractive open-cycle economic growth as the sole measure of human welfare and societal success.

California has a slow vehicle move over law that went into effect this past January. While aimed at any vehicle, seems like bicycles would be the most obvious targets. When combined with the 3' pass law, each seem to cancel the other out, ie. cars need to give 3' to pass but it's a bicyclist's responsibility to move over and make the room. Both laws seem unfortunate stand-ins for courtesy.

The US version of the portable Hotel Tom Bodett (Bodette for Canadian franchises) comes with a bookcase containing every book written by Dottie R (see photo). The Canadian version comes every book written by Rob the Fords. And not shown in the SFW advertisement, the rooms come decorated with photography by Carlos Danger (female guests) and Huge Hefner (male guests).

My Pop-Up Airbnb in Prospect Park Brooklyn went unrented last weekend. I'm thinking I should have used the word "curated" in my advertisement. Perhaps I should include an artisan produced axe, a six pack of PBR and some Mast Brothers Chocolate as part of the "Honeymoon Outdoors Experience Package" (maybe something for the bookshelf, maybe?).

People who work at work constitute a higher % of workers than walking, biking, and mass transit combined. Yet the smuggies aren't mentioning this; or the couch potatoes, invalids, shut-ins, prisoners, and especially the Dead People (Way to Go! What ever happened to the "Save the Planet, Go kill yourself" or "Save the Planet, go live in a Cave" bumper stickers.

when biek-sickening starts taking into account the impact of the moon gravitational pull from below or above depending on phase and your current usng coordinates (hey biek-sickening, i'm at 18TWK2686 if you can help me out) i'll pay more attention.

i'll actually consider using this info when they help me adjust for whether i had a hard boiled or a yogurt for breakfast

As you may know, my dog is running for president. He asked me to ask you if you would mind if his speech writers work your "If no one's getting hurt, no one's getting paid" observation and related explanation into a campaign address.

He says he would credit you as an unpaid economic adviser.

He says he can't think of anything more economical than not paying his economic advisors.

Of course, I can think of additional economies he observes, including the failure to pay the $20 he owes me, but I also appreciate that his positions are consistent.

Long reach brakes, tire pressure for comfort? If only we knew sooner, if only someone had written that on a website years ago!Maybe Bicycling's next tech article will just be a link to Sheldon Brown's website…

The pop-up basic furnishing trunk will find two, maybe three takers. But what might be more interesting, is that tumbleweeding is the new norm for the young clever folks these days. What drives this change? Who fucking cares. Nomadic lifestyles were perfected millennia ago, Bedouins, Mongols, Sioux, etc. I'm headed over to Bestmade to see whats hot right now...

I'm starting the conspiracy theory that bib shorts guy (BSG) is, in fact, a young Donny Trump. Take the hair off the "beard", place it sideways on the top of his head, and you have my proof. #BSGISTHEDONALDNote this well before big bibshorts takes me out. I've already said too much. Print this out, read it, and eat the paper.

I was curious about the backwards fork in the historical Australia pic of A. H. Sheppard. Googling suggests it was to reduce clearance for motorpacing. Maybe all those Walmart assemblers are just operating on the assumption their bikes will be primarily used this way...

The Doomsday Clock is fuckin' stupid. It was 2 minutes to midnite 63 years ago. So it is meaningless. Metaphorically, what is the difference between 3 or say 1 or 17 before doomsday, when even the effect of say Nuclear holocaust probably wouldn't kill everyone. They should call it the Mental Masturbation Clock By A Bunch Of Idiots Who Think They Are Smart, But Don't Even Understand Really Simple Concepts. I'm missing several cards from the deck, yet when i (and everyone else) say it is 12 days to the Super Bowl, it means something is going to happen Super Bowl wise in 12 days. So "metaphorically" 3 minutes might mean tomorrow, 100 years, or never. So fuck Dem morons...... Go Panthers (not the team, the animals who should eat the geeks)

I need to get me some of what Snobby is smokin'. Today's post has to be an early April fool's gag. Drug induced concepts ike portable hotel rooms and laws requiring cyclists to yield to traffic behind them are ridiculous enough, but when you mix in the most naive family in human history, I have to think you're off the edge of reality.

Sheeeit! Did someone say Sarah Palin?! She sure knows how speechify with lots of feelin'. Not a whole lot of thinkin' but fer sure with lots of feelin'. We is gonna make 'merica great again! Just you wait an' see.

slipped in to de Blasio-grad tonight for a meal with the real king of park slope. i think i'll stick with staying in the hemorrhoids having dropped over 300 fun coupons for me & the spousy. over a hundred fer a couple glasses of martell cordon bleu. i can get two bottles of that shit out here for that kind of money. only saving grace is the train fare for old fuck-o(e)s was less than five bucks / trip.

glad i'm headin' south of de border at the end of the week were de booze is cheep.

BWAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!!! OMG that was hilarious. I might have wet myself I laughed so hard. Even my eyes were leaking, and I had to stop to catch my breath. Genius. Heh heh heh... Seeing the flock of bibshortsguys crowding and presumably stroking the long, hard monolith was too funny, but scrolling down to see BSG peeking over the edge of the damned thing sent me over the edge. Heh heh heh heh... yep, it's true. I love you, snobberdooderdoo.

Had another good laugh today. I just caught wind of the "We All Need the D" campaign. Heh. Don't I know it!! Truer words were never printed. We DO all need the D. Every day. :)

Hey, wait. Does that mean that you guys get the D naturally, every day??? A girl's gotta know.

dopJanuary 26, 2016 at 12:24 PMBest comment out of the usual pile of dipwad. I gave to a couple of bike nonprofit places for a few years and I have accrued many free years of Bicycling subscription along the way. They all go in the trash when they come in the door.

dopJanuary 26, 2016 at 12:24 PMBest comment out of the usual pile of dipwad. I gave to a couple of bike nonprofit places for a few years and I have accrued many free years of Bicycling subscription along the way. They all go in the trash when they come in the door.

McFly - I believe that would be me who advised sealing up tubeless rim strip tape with a tube at moderately high pressure. Although I can't really take credit for it. I learned it on the internet. It is a nice trick nonetheless.

Babble - I am pretty certain that there is no quick fix for tubies. You can try adding sealant to the tube, but that may not work reliably or at all. The only real way to patch a tubular is to locate the approximate location of the hole, peel back the base tape, unstitch the section with the hole, pull out the section of the tube with the hole, patch as normal, stuff the tube back in, restitch, and glue the base tape back down. The old school racers I know would build up stacks of punctured tubulars over the course of the year and then patch on cold, boring winter nights.

If you're gonna ride tubies, it's best to have a tire sponsor so you don't have to bother with that shit.

They're actually going after putting in a very similar law regarding cyclists dismounting for passing cars here in NC. It's insane.

Also, while NYC got a bunch of snow, at least be happy NYS has plows. As an upstate NYer, I'm used to snow. In NC nobody shovels, there are no plows. Folks just wait for it to melt. It's insane as well.

Have you ever considered about adding a little bit more than just your articles? I mean, what you say is valuable and all. Nevertheless imagine if you added some great images or videos to give your posts more, "pop"! .. Good, i like..

Thanks for the information very interesting I really liked all the writing you. I make sure your blog is becoming one of my favorite blogs to read. I will visit again Obat Pemutih Wajah Tanpa Efek Samping

About Me

While I love cycling and embrace it in all its forms, I'm also extremely critical. So I present to you my venting for your amusement and betterment. No offense meant to the critiqued. Always keep riding!